A Darlington payroll bureau is celebrating after gaining a valued accreditation in record time.
Clive Owen & Co LLP’s payroll bureau, Accupay, recently gained this accreditation from Bacs, and are now the only payroll bureau in Darlington to have this status.
While the usual length of time taken to achieve Bacs accreditation is about 18 months, the Accupay team achieved their accreditation in just three months.
The accreditation procedure is rigorous, with the firm having to demonstrate exceptionally high standards in areas such as business continuity, commercial arrangements, professional services, and even physical security.
Clive Owen & Co has been providing a complete payroll bureau service for over 10 years. Over this time the business has grown and now carries out payroll for more than 300 companies in the North East, producing around 5,000 payslips every month.
This development means significantly more benefits to clients. Two of the main areas of improvement are speed of payments and increased security.
The payroll team is headed up by Angela Cammock, who has over 20 years of experience in the payroll field.
Angela said: “The Bacs accreditation is a great tool for us to have. It allows us to offer so much more to our clients – they can just pass everything over to us, and we become their payroll department.
“We wanted to get the accreditation so quickly because we were hearing from our clients that the banks were making changes to their payment processes, and the clients had to adapt to that. We thought we could take that issue away from them by offering the full Bacs-accredited payroll service.
“Even if it means more work for the team, we’re glad to have risen to the challenge.”
Chris Beaumont, Partner added: “Angela has been the driving force behind the firm gaining this accreditation, but the whole team deserves the credit. It couldn’t have been done without the IT team as well, so it’s been a real joint effort.
“Being the only Bacs-approved bureau in Darlington, and only the second in the Tees Valley, is a tremendous achievement for the firm and underpins Clive Owen & Co’s commitment to quality in all divisions of the business.”
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